Prediction of lifetime milk production on the basis of early economic traits in Deoni cattle

prediction of lifetime milk production in Deoni cattle

Abstract

Deoni is considered to be one of the most popular dual purpose cattle breeds in Southern and Western parts of India, and mainly found in Bidar district of Northern Karnataka and Latur district of South-Eastern Maharashtra. There is a need to improve the lifetime productivity of animals. Lifetime milk production reflects the true performance of a herd. Selection of dairy animals needs to be carried out based on the early expressed productive and reproductive traits at an early age so that the expenses are reduced and dairy enterprise will be a profitable venture. Keeping this in view, the study was taken up to estimate lifetime milk production in Deoni cows based on early expressed traits viz., age at first calving, first and second lactation traits. Data on milk yield of Deoni cows maintained at ICAR-National Dairy Research Institute, Southern Regional Station, Bengaluru (India) during the period of 2002 to 2019 revealed overall mean lactation milk yield, lactation length, dry period and calving interval were estimated as 996.96 ± 56.84 kg, 221.35 ± 9.41 days, 211.67± 13.40 days and 432.15 ± 13.65 days, respectively. Data standardization and normalization were carried out before analysis. Lifetime lactation milk yield comprising of the first five and more lactations was recorded as 5090.24 ± 247.14 kg with a range of 2101.25 to 8988.24 kg. There was a significant correlation between lactation milk yield and lactation length during different lactations. Second lactation milk yield was found to be highly associated with lifetime milk production. When age at first calving and lactation milk yield, lactation length, and calving interval of first and second parities were included independently in the regression equation, only second lactation milk yield significantly contributed with a R² value of 83.7 percent against first lactation traits with a R² value of 53.8 percent (P<0.001). Therefore, it is concluded that culling in this dual purpose breed based on first lactation milk yield is not encouraged and second lactation milk yield could be the basis for the selection of superior animals for lifetime milk production performance.